Scholarship

The Corrine Bostic Memorial Scholarship

Criteria: ($1,000 Award) The Corrine Bostic Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to a sophomore, junior, or senior majoring in English.

“People power generates poems. Such art is part of and not apart from the people,” Corrine Bostic wrote in her poem, “Togetherness.” Corrine, once an active and beloved member of the Worcester community, personified this phrase.

A poet and playwright, Corrine contributed to the culture of Worcester through her books, teaching in the region’s public schools, appearances on local radio and television, and readings in schools, colleges, and cultural centers in the Worcester region. Corrine was a native of Providence, Rhode Island, and maintained ties to her home state by participating in cultural opportunities such as poetry readings.

Corrine’s published works include the three-act play The Horns of Freedom, a one-act comedy Other Places, Other Faces, a book of poetry, Requiem for Bluesville, and a memoir of 1894 Worcester Normal School graduate and well-known Worcester public school teacher Sarah Ella Wilson entitled Go Onward and Upward. She also edited an anthology of work by local writers, Messages in Black, which contained what are considered two of her best poems, “These Riotous Days” and “Ballad for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

Corrine co-founded the Worcester County Poetry Association in 1971, serving as its vice president from 1972 to 1973 and as a member of its board until her death in 1981. She also taught at Worcester’s North and South High Schools as part of the Poetry Association’s National Endowment for the Arts Master Poets-Apprentice program, in the Oxford (Mass.) Public Schools, and at Quinsigamond Community College. Corrine was an editor of the Worcester Review.

Corrine was also active in the civil rights movement, various peace and justice groups, the YMCA, Worcester Historical Society, Piedmont Opportunity Center, the Federated Eastern Indian League, and Cultural Assembly of Greater Worcester.

Corrine was born on March 28, 1927, in Providence and had seven siblings. She served in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. She moved to Worcester in 1953 to attend Worcester Junior College. She later graduated from Clark University. She and her husband, Walter, raised three children, including Stephen Bostic ’77, M.Ed. ’86, a member of WSU’s Board of Trustees and former president and member of the Worcester State Foundation Board of Directors.

Although Corrine’s loss left a void in Worcester’s literary and social communities, it is hoped that this scholarship, established by her son Stephen, will enable Worcester State students to perfect their literary and poetic talents and follow in her footsteps.